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<\/a><\/p>\nOnly if the humans who read them support them. And here comes AI.<\/p>\n
CONTEST: Win Tickets to See Isaiah Collier Live<\/a> The acclaimed saxophonist will give a July jazz festival performance at the Vancouver Playhouse.<\/p>\n The Greater Vancouver Regional District Employees\u2019 Union represents more than 700 workers who operate and maintain Metro Vancouver\u2019s water treatment plants, parks, construction sites and other infrastructure. <\/p>\n Bill Tieleman, a union spokesperson, said workers are prepared to head to a full strike, which could mean water restrictions, closure of some parks and construction delays.<\/p>\n Talks broke down primarily over non-monetary issues.<\/p>\n
Tieleman said the employer asked the union to accept a set of conditions before bargaining that would bar it from negotiating improvements on key issues like health and safety and the amount of work going to non-union employees. <\/p>\n \u201cImposing preconditions isn’t bargaining. It isn’t negotiation; it’s capitulation, and the union is not going to capitulate to management demands,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Metro board should drop the preconditions and go back to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n The employer says it can\u2019t bargain on health and safety because it\u2019s regulated by WorkSafeBC and disagrees with what happened at the bargaining table.<\/p>\n \u201cMetro Vancouver remains ready to return to the bargaining table immediately, and has made no preconditions on bargaining,\u201d spokesperson Amanda McCuaig said in an email. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have also repeatedly requested the appointment of a mediator \u2014 again, without preconditions \u2014 to support progress. To date, the union has not agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n The two sides remain at an impasse. Tieleman said the union plans to continue escalating job action. Meanwhile, Metro Vancouver filed a labour practice complaint in April accusing the union of bad-faith bargaining. The complaint is still unresolved and the union strongly rejects the allegation. <\/p>\n Disagreement over what\u2019s on the table<\/p>\n Metro Vancouver and the union started bargaining last July. <\/p>\n \u201cAfter such a long time period of bargaining, their list of conditions is still very long, and some of the things on it are things that we wouldn’t bargain,\u201d McCuaig told The Tyee.<\/p>\n She said the employer can\u2019t bargain on health and safety. <\/p>\n \u201cWe’re beholden to WorkSafe, so that’s not on or off the table for us,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to meet safety standards.\u201d<\/p>\n She added the employer does not see safety as a bargaining trade-off and has one of the strongest workplace health and safety records in the province. <\/p>\n \u201cOur injury rates are consistently lower than our peers in local government and our experience rating has continued to improve steadily over the past five years,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n But Tieleman said workers have seen Metro Vancouver put crews at risk several times in the past decade, raising concerns about their safety. <\/p>\n He noted Metro Vancouver failed to take the proper precautions to keep crews safe during sewer work<\/a> in 2017. And he said that in March 2024 a worker was seriously injured<\/a> while working on a New Westminster water main. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is not an employer who has proven to have a good record on health and safety,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn’t matter how much money you get paid or what your hours and working conditions are if you can’t be assured that you’ll be safe on the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Non-union workers<\/p>\n Tieleman added the union also wants to see the employer commit to reducing the amount of work going to non-union employees, including contractors. Neither side offered a clear answer on how many non-union workers were in the workplace. But the union estimates it\u2019s nearly half. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s work that the union believes much could be done internally by union members, and that they should be hiring more people to do that rather than contracting it out,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n Vancouver Unveils Its World Cup Human Rights Plan. And Gets Blasted<\/p>\n \t\t\t\tread more <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n McCuaig said Metro Vancouver is committed to reducing the amount of non-union work. She said that in 2025 Metro Vancouver\u2019s board identified $364 million in savings that include less outsourcing and more work for unionized employees. <\/p>\n \u201cA key outcome of that work is reducing reliance on external consultants and contractors, and, where it makes sense, bringing work in-house and creating more union jobs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n More than 60 per cent of the staff who are exempt from the union are professional engineers and fewer than 20 per cent are managers, she added.<\/p>\n Escalating job action<\/p>\n Tieleman said the union will continue to escalate job action until the employer agrees to bargain on these issues. <\/p>\n On May 24, unionized workers refused to work overtime or be on standby. Each day since, the union has had members abstain from their duties at different water treatment plants, air quality sites and other public infrastructure sites to picket. <\/p>\n Tieleman said it\u2019s unclear just how many workers are on strike. On Monday, the union removed members from their jobs at the Capilano Watershed, the Seymour Watershed, the Coquitlam Watershed, the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve, the Seymour-Capilano Filtration Plant and the Coquitlam Water Treatment Plant.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n Labour Rally Challenges ‘Out of Touch’ Government<\/p>\n
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